Democrats should adopt the Trump campaign playbook
A quick note about Week Four of Trump 2.0
We’re at the end of week four of the second Trump administration. I expected it to be overreaching, but the extent of what these four weeks have wrought has been pretty overwhelming. As I wrote Wednesday, I’m trying not to engage every minute of the day in an attempt to retain some sense of sanity.
That works for me. But I don’t understand how the Democrats can afford to do this. It doesn’t make sense to rely on normal procedural processes while awaiting upcoming special elections and the 2026 midterms.
This week Brian Beutler had an excellent piece titled “Out With the Consultants” expressing frustration about this lackadaisical approach from Democrats. He wrote:
The notion that Democratic leaders would outsource so much judgment to professional-services providers has never made sense to me. Washington is full of professional-services providers (some good, some bad) but the nature of these fields is essentially to keep clients out of trouble. A huge share of the guidance they give amounts to “don’t stick your neck out.” Does that sound like good advice for someone seeking votes in an attention economy? Does that sound compatible with political leadership that rallies the masses?
We can see this in the sad-sack advice influential operators like David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel have for Democrats, suddenly confronted with a president seeking to steal their legitimate power: Don’t go to bat for foreign aid. They opine as if this were actually a debate over how much the country spends on foreign aid, rather than over whether Trump gets to dissolve government agencies by fiat.
Beutler isn’t the only one to see this. I saw on a friend’s Facebook page a series of Valentines suggested by The Daily Show. One makes the point clearly about Schumer.
In a similar vein, the excellent New York Times Pitchbot put this on BlueSky yesterday: Opinion | The Democratic Party needs new faces by Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and James Carville
The end of last month, I argued that we needed far more pushback from people like Senators Chris Murhy and Andy Kim or from Congresspersons Jasmine Crockett or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. I’m pleased to note that these very people have been very vocal over the past couple of weeks. It’s a start, but it’s not enough.
The protests at various government buildings have been better than nothing, but it’s hard to see how it is motivating people to the level the situation demands. Even calls for protests in the streets (like having a Not My President protest on Monday) is too easily ignored.
I got a fundraising text on Tuesday from Josh Weil. He is the democratic candidate for an April special election in Florida to replace the NSC director. Normally, I post STOP to make these texts go away. But I didn’t in this case. I haven’t given money yet, but I probably will. I got to thinking about it means to have an election in just two months.
In fact, Democrats should be in full-blown campaign mode right now — as if the midterms were coming up in sixty days. There is no time to settle into a quiet pattern of business as usual.
This, in turn, got me reflecting on how Trump operated as a candidate prior to 2016, as president throughout the first term, and candidate in 2020, and again in 2024.
Trump’s secret sauce were his rallies. They were regular occurrences for his fans. He made his stock speech, riled up the crowd, and controlled the news cycle whether what he said was cogent or another example of “the weave”.
Democrats have gotten themselves tied up determining what the right messaging is to capture the attention of the voters. I’m no expert, but waiting for inflation to go up further and then decry that Trump said prices were going down isn’t going to work. The economic factors are too much in flux to make a solid case. The economic argument in 2024 was as much about vibes as actual data.
What would be better would be for the Democrats to identify some charismatic figures who carry a certain degree of trust. Those mentioned above are in the ballpark. But if folks like Sanders and Warren are going to simply repeat the same talking points they have for years (decades?), it won’t break through.
Imagine if there was a rally held every week in a large-ish venue. Speeches by the rising generation of Democrats on the hill could tag-team speeches. Not only would this mobilize crowds (with unique chants and merchandise) but it would functionally demonstrate a much needed changing of the guard in Democratic leadership. Maybe they can’t upset the leadership structure (yet) but they can certainly establish a sort of shadow government within the Democratic establishment.
The Old Guard and The Establishment Consultants won’t like this. Their current prestige and power depends on things staying as they have alway been within the caucus.
But it’s clear that the current strategy is far too anemic to deal with what Trump/Musk and their minions are trying to do. Something else must happen and it needs to happen soon.